Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Blue/Green Roofs: Solving Four Urban Problems In One Solution

Via AquaTech, a look at the potential of blue-green roofs: Blue-green roofs have the potential to solve four urban problems in one go: increased water collection and reuse; sustainable energy production; building insulation and thriving eco-systems.  What to do with roof space in urban environments The potential uses for rooftops in urban environments tend to […]

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In Halifax, Green Roofs Net Great Results

Via National Observer, a report on green roof success in Halifax, Canada: As big Canadian cities grapple with climate change, green roofs are catching carbon, shielding buildings from sunlight and moderating temperatures. Equally important for Halifax, which averages more than 1.35 metres of rain per year, is how green roofs reduce flooding by absorbing storm […]

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Can Rooftop Solar Alone Solve Climate Change? Here’s the Answer

Via the Los Angeles Times, a look at the math behind rooftop solar: No matter how many times I write about renewable energy — about sprawling solar farms, towering wind turbines and lengthy power lines carrying clean electricity to faraway cities — there’s one question I get asked again and again and again: Why do […]

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Australia’s Push to Put More Solar Panels on Rental Homes

Via Eco Business, a look at Australia’s push to put more solar panels on rental homes: As a university student in Canberra, Eilis Fitt and her two housemates set rules to keep their electricity bill down – no heater in the living room unless everyone was home, and no turning on the washing machine or […]

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His Roof Wasn’t Suitable for Solar Panels. Here’s What He Did Instead.

Via Yale Climate Connections, a look at how one individual found a different way to help the climate and his community: A few years ago, Indiana resident John Smillie wanted to put solar panels on his roof. There was just one problem: Smillie: “It’s not really a good roof for solar.” But Smillie was not to […]

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This Italian Airport Will Soon Have a 19-Acre Working Vineyard on Its Roof

Via Food & Wine, a report on a new roof project in Florence: The airport in Florence, Italy, doesn’t have as many amenities as Italy’s significantly larger airports in Rome, Milan, and Venice. There aren’t any Hermes stores, you can’t pick up a Rolex before you board, and your dining options are limited to three unremarkable restaurants. But […]

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About This Blog And Its Author
As potential uses for building and parking lot roofspace continue to grow, unique opportunities to understand and profit from this trend will emerge. Roof Options is committed to tracking the evolving uses of roof estate – spanning solar power, rainwater harvesting, wind power, gardens & farms, “cooling” sites, advertising, apiculture, and telecom transmission platforms – to help unlock the nascent, complex, and expanding roofspace asset class.

Educated at Yale University (Bachelor of Arts - History) and Harvard (Master in Public Policy - International Development), Monty Simus has held a lifelong interest in environmental and conservation issues, primarily as they relate to freshwater scarcity, renewable energy, and national park policy. Working from a water-scarce base in Las Vegas with his wife and son, he is the founder of Water Politics, an organization dedicated to the identification and analysis of geopolitical water issues arising from the world’s growing and vast water deficits, and is also a co-founder of SmartMarkets, an eco-preneurial venture that applies web 2.0 technology and online social networking innovations to motivate energy & water conservation. He previously worked for an independent power producer in Central Asia; co-authored an article appearing in the Summer 2010 issue of the Tulane Environmental Law Journal, titled: “The Water Ethic: The Inexorable Birth Of A Certain Alienable Right”; and authored an article appearing in the inaugural issue of Johns Hopkins University's Global Water Magazine in July 2010 titled: “H2Own: The Water Ethic and an Equitable Market for the Exchange of Individual Water Efficiency Credits.”